One Has To Say Goodbye

One of Buddha’s disciples, Sariputta, one day bowed down at Buddha’s feet. Suddenly he felt the energy falling on him. He felt a sudden transformation, a mutation of his whole mind, as if he was being destroyed and created again. He cried, “No! Wait a little.” The whole assembly of Buddha’s disciples could not understand what was happening. And he said, “Wait a little – not so soon!”

Buddha said, “But why?”

He said, “Then these feet will be lost to me. Wait a little. Emancipation is at hand and I would like to be with you a little longer. Don’t push me away so soon” – because once the master has blessed and the emancipation is at hand, this is the last thing: one has to say goodbye to the master. Sariputta said, “Wait!”

Sariputta became enlightened later on. Buddha told him, “Now you go. I waited enough. Now you go and spread whatsoever I have given to you, go and give it to others.”

Sariputta had to go, weeping and crying. Somebody asked, “You have become enlightened and you weep and cry?”

He said, “Yes, I have become enlightened – but I can throw away the bliss of enlightenment if Buddha allows me to live at his feet.”

Such deep gratitude – and then wherever Sariputta lived, everyday in the morning he would bow down to the direction where he knew Buddha was moving. And people asked him again and again, “Why do you do this? To whom do you bow down?” He said, “Buddha is moving in the south.”

When the last days of Sariputta came, he inquired, “Where is Buddha right now? – because I would like to die bowing down in that direction.” And he died bowing down in that direction where Buddha was. When the energy is received, when the final benediction comes from the master – the emancipation is at hand – one has to say goodbye.